Dinner #1: Chris takes us to a deli in Queens

Since Chris was in the country for a limited time, we volunteered him to pick the first Italian restaurant. This way we knew he would be present for at least one of our excursions. The date was set for Friday, June 6th.

I notified Chris that he had been selected to make the first dining choice. I also briefed him that this new series would be a competition to find the best Italian dining experience in the NY area. Without much thought, he said his choice would be a deli in Queens called Sapori D'Ischia. A deli? Huh? Did he hear what I said about the competition? I asked him for the web site. "Web site!? Did you hear what I said? It's a deli in Queens!" he replied. OK, no web site, but they've been reviewed by New York Magazine. Click here to check it out.

So we all met at Sapori D'Ischia in Woodside, Queens. Given the location, we were glad that there was valet parking. Unfortunately, since plans were made on short notice, not everyone could make it. Diners that night were me, Chris, Mike, Donna, Mary Jane, Dominick, and Joni.

Holy Cow. What a surprise. This place was really cool. For originality and uniqueness, this one will be hard to beat. It really was a deli that transforms into a restaurant. We literally sat in the store area amongst the goods on the shelves -- boxes of dried pasta, jars of antipasto, cans of plum tomatoes -- all bathed in candlelight.

Unfortunately, since it's been over a week since we went there, I need some help remembering what we ordered, so please feel free to post in the comment section below, along with anything else you want to say about this event. I know I had the short ribs, which were great -- but the mashed potatoes that came with them were dry.

In the meantime, here are some pics and video clips for your enjoyment...


And what fun would dining out be without a left wing rant from Chris? Surprisingly (but maybe not to Chris), photos of Bill and Hill dining at this place were on display in an almost shrine-like manner. Hmmm...




Dominick's Critique (yes, I know it's dark, but you can hear him)

Impersonating the evening's impersonator (also hard to see, but I'm sure "Elvis" here appreciates that).

New Dining Series Kicks Off

Welcome to the "Italian Dining Challenge" Blog!

I thought a group blog would be a fun way to chronicle our new round of dining excursions -- especially since Donna gave up on the journal thing pretty quickly. :) It might be a little dangerous to give everyone in the group the ability to publish here, but I hope we'll all remember that this is on the internet -- for the world to potentially see. So keep it clean and anti-defamatory -- even in our normal and sometimes stinging jest, ok? :)

It took over a year for us to complete the full round of our "Adventure Dining Series" which started back in Feb 2007 with Dina's Egyptian selection Cafe Horus, complete with belly dancers and hooka-smoking....and ended with Chris' (or was it Jane's?) dining pick up in Harlem for Ethiopian at Awash where we all ate with our hands. The wait staff even refused to give Donna a utensil when she asked ("no fork for you!"). Gotta keep it authentic, I guess.

Round Two: Mangia Tutte Italiano...

After denying ourselves the joy of Italian dining as a group for over a year, I thought our next series should be ONLY Italian....! And to make it more interesting, we'd make it a friendly competition to find the "best" Italian restaurant in the area.

Like before, we will each take turns picking a restaurant -- but this time your fellow diners will rate restaurant selections for overall experience, food, price/value, atmosphere, and uniqueness/creativity (not so sure I want to keep that last criteria). And we'll blog about it afterwards too.

At the end of the series, the votes will be tallied and the winner will have his/her dinner paid for. Who knows, maybe there'll be some sort of trophy. We'll see. I've got a year to think about that. :) May the best diner win.

Memories and Moments from Round One

Before we move on to blogging about our Italian eats, here are some photos from of the first group. Can't find my pics from the Vietnamese restaurant, so if someone has them, please send to me and I'll add.